His angry Democrats are fighting those angry Republicans over the so-called government shutdown.
It’s not really a shutdown, even though the rhetoric suggests that the sky is falling and the seas
are about to give up the dead. This is the 18th time it’s happened since the 1970s, and the
republic still stands.

But if the president can just carve out a few seconds, he should really think about sending out
a team to do some hunting.

Some moron hunting.

Morons may be few in number, but they can be dangerous during times of political controversy.
All it takes is a few morons in a president’s administration to ruin a carefully scripted
public-relations battle.

Especially that unidentified moron who decided the other day that he or she had a great
idea:

Put up a barricade and a few guards at the World War II Memorial in Washington, tell veterans
groups that it was closed and pin it on the Republicans.

Unfortunately for the president, the moron has disappeared. Yes, perhaps it’s unfair, but the
president gets blamed for this, for overplaying his hand.

You don’t need a public-relations consultant to explain the strategy: Someone reasoned that the
veterans would be upset at the closed memorial and the media (which generally support the
big-government establishment) would carry the water and put further heat on Obama’s political
foes.

But it didn’t turn out that way.

On Tuesday, Honor Flight groups honoring the veterans showed up at the WWII Memorial. The vets
looked at the signs that told them the memorial was closed, and they didn’t follow government
orders.

They just pushed their way through. Old men in wheelchairs, some using canes, some whip-thin and
upright, with their families and their wives, just walked past the “closed” signs.

No matter which side of this you’re on, whether you support the Democrats or the Republicans,
you can figure out what came next.

The Republicans seized the advantage, just as the Democrats would have done.

“Some idiot in government sent goons out there to set up barricades so they couldn’t see the
monument,” said Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican.

He said “idiot,” but “moron” will do just as well.

“People had to spend hours setting up barricades where there are never barricades to prevent
people from seeing the World War II monument because they’re trying to play a charade,” Paul
said.

By Wednesday, members of another Honor Flight group from Chicago were concerned that the White
House would ban them as well. Sen. Mark Kirk, the Illinois Republican and a retired naval
intelligence officer, vowed to lead them through. News crews gathered for the story.

“I think it’s shameful,” said Mary Pettinato, CEO and co-founder of Honor Flight Chicago. “It
doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you’re on, it’s shameful and shouldn’t happen, that men and
women that we should be honoring most have to be able to fight to see the memorial we built for
them.”

The White House must have sent out an emergency call because there at the World War II Memorial,
Democrats enthusiastically showed up with Republicans to make sure the veterans were allowed
in.

The whole thing is idiotic, or moronic. If you’ve ever been to Washington and toured the WWII
Memorial, or the Vietnam Memorial, you know why.

They’re made of stone. They’re out in the open. These are our secular holy places, commemorating
our fathers and grandfathers who died so Americans can scream like cats about who spends what.

You can see the memorials during the day or at night. I’ve been to both when there were no
guards present, just soldiers or the families of soldiers.

There was no reason to set up even minor blockades this week, except to play the political blame
game. And it hurt the president.

Hans von Spakovsky, a legal scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told me Wednesday
in an interview that the president was hurt by the foolish decision.

“That was pure political theater. That memorial is on the mall. It’s open 24 hours a day. Even
when there are no park police there,” von Spakovsky said. “So they had to go through time and money
to send people out there to put up barricades to close it.”

Most of the old veterans didn’t play partisan politics with the issue. Many years ago, when
these men were young, the enemy machine guns searching for them didn’t distinguish between
Democratic or Republican soldiers.

“To me it’s just like a bunch of little kids fighting over candy,” George Atkinson, 82, of
Nevada, Iowa, said of the politicians. “The whole group ought to be replaced, top man down.”

Especially that moron who ordered the barricades, whoever he or she is.